Comments (54)

The idea that the senate dems would significantly reform the filibuster is about as realistic as the demand that Obama push for the public option or that Polanski be extradited. Was never going to happen.

only to have the GOP to completely revoke it when they gain back control.

You think the vast majority of GOP Senators – the ones who actually use the filibuster to significant effect – are going to get rid of something that has been their primary mechanism of exerting power over the last four years, and that empowers individual Senators?

Yeah, but that was 51 before this newer, shittier deal emerged. It’s pretty much a given that some bipartisan-curious Dems are going to start supporting McCain/Levin instead. It’s a pretty safe bet that the final product that gets 51 votes (all from Democrats, natch) will be a lot closer to McCain/Levin than Merkley/Udall — in other words, the usual “negotiating with themselves” that we’ve come to expect from the blue team.

That pretty much describes most senators on any tough Democratic sponsored vote. Unless they can be part of a safe, protected herd, their vote can’t be counted on until it’s cast. Senators like Kennedy, Wellstone, Feingold, some others over the years excepted of course.

By contrast, the supposedly moderate GOP senators could be counted on joining the Dems when the GOP didn’t need their votes in order to improve their “vote ratings” for their campaigns back in their blue states, but on critical votes the are solid GOP.

I admit that the 3 GOP votes for the stimulus package in early 2009 were an exception – Specter and the two from Maine – but even that early exception only served to make the GOP rule even stronger. The backlash from those votes pushed Collins and Snowe completely into the GOP’s hands during the health care voting and forced Specter to switch parties in a vain attempt to save his seat.

When Scott Brown runs for Kerry’s seat (thanks, Obama – we Dems in competitive states like Colorado LOVE having to fight to keep our should-be-safe Senate seats after you bring one of our Senators into your cabinet) whoever opposes him would be most effective at running ads that list all the GOP filibusters he supported on all the legislation and nominations that are popular in MA -starting with Obamacare. A vote for Brown – or any GOP candidate – is a vote for Mitch McConnell and the policies he supports, regardless of what the candidate claims to support himself.

Thanks for the link. The flaw in Levin’s logic is that the unprecedented use of the filibuster, anonymous holds, etc. is itself a radical departure from procedural norms, and if you don’t do what you can to oppose those radical changes, you can’t really say you’re procedurally conservative.

It’s even worse than this. It denies Reid the ability to fill the amendment tree, meaning McConnell is guaranteed to be able to attach at least two poison pill amendments to any bill. That’s a huge procedural change from current practice where amendments are negotiated as part of a unanimous consent agreement or blocked entirely by the Majority Leader. It’s a really bad deal.

Filibuster reform will never happen. At least, not with the current crop of gopers.
Ya see, with the House gerrymandered for the next decade into gop hands and with the current filibuster abuse by the rw clowns in the Senate, its the gop who are running gummit. Elections no longer have consequences.